While my long weekend could have been spent organizing my house, getting friendly with my Netflix account, or envying my sister’s trip home to Texas (don’t worry I’ll get my turn), instead I hit the road and got to enjoy a little piece of gorgeous I never realized was practically in my backyard (road trip-wise): Jackson Hole.

In typical fashion, I made all my trip arrangements and decisions mere days before departure with a good deal of help from a Facbook thread full of knowledgeable friends and trip advisor reviews (Trip planning before the Internet must have been torture). I then endured the eternity that is the last hour of work on the Friday of a long holiday weekend, threw my things in the back of my friend Emily’s car, and set my sights on Wyoming.

Though slightly delayed by a slosh of I-15 traffic (and one Sonic drink stop… go ahead, try to convince me that’s not mandatory) we were soon rewarded with a backdrop of lush green mountains. I imagine the scenery just before our destination was even more beautiful, but we made it to our destination just before midnight so the end of our drive was a pitch black rearview and one faithful road companion who lit up the curvy drive and stayed with us practically the whole rest of the way. We craned our necks upwards to admire the starry sky and settled into our hostel for a good night’s sleep.

The next day we started our morning with white water rafting. I’d never done this before, but soon discovered I love it (only regret: no photographic proof)! We went to the office where we meet our rafting companions, three fellow Utahan women on a girls rafting trip (this was their second year and they promised they would show us the ropes and be our “moms”) and the object of their affections, a new rafting employee from Arkansas stuck to his go pro (our new friends could not get over his adorable accent), along with our official guide, a guide in training/transfer from Tennessee, and a few others. Our “moms” made sure we had sunscreen, the guide made sure we knew what to do if we fell off (didn’t happen), and our tag along Tennessee guide regaled us with twang-y stories of Thailand and Costa Rica rivers. Despite cold water temperatures, I had a great time going down the river, especially when I got to ride up at the very front ( I was told I could not stop grinning). I was queen of the boat. I stand by that.

Since I don’t have river pictures I’ll share these views from the drive later that day at Grand Teton National Park.

We stopped for lunch at Pearl street market (crazy good sandwiches) and spent the rest of the day at Jenny Lake.

We got there in time to catch the last boat across the lake.

This little guy greeted us at the shuttle boat.

Once we got off the boat we hiked to Hidden Falls. The falls were great, but the bridge was out so we couldn’t get too close.

We came across these little falls first.

Hidden falls!

Our trail was snowy, but not this snowy. This sort of marked the end of the path, or at least the part of the path I was willing to go up, haha.

Then we hiked around the lake back to the visitor’s center. The trail was still a bit snowy, but we managed. The weather itself was fine, although we did get some rain. Along the way we also saw some wildlife. Small, non-bear, wildlife. Which is how I like my wildlife.

Me and Morty, my trusty walking stick.

We kept seeing these guys all along the trail.

Not everything was covered in snow.

We ended out the night with pizza and parmesan, truffle oil waffle fries at Pinky G’s. We dropped by Yippy IO for dessert.

I ended up leaving with salt caramel fudge, blueberry gummy bears, huckleberry gummy bears, and pomegranate jelly beans. All to be eaten separately, of course.

There’s more to it, but I get a little snap happy at Yellowstone, so I’ll continue this in another post.

Currently: Apologizing for being gone girl. You may be happy to know I’ve got a few other posts coming your way, including my recent trip to Moab.